Things to do this weekend

back seat of bus

Is it me  or am I doing these, “go check this out this weekend” post more and more often. It’s just me because these are all events YOU HAVE TO GO CHECK OUT THIS WEEKEND. I’m serious. A lot of them are free or relatively free. This weekend though, I will be part of one 🙂 See that picture of people on the bus, I made that 🙂 No too shabby if I say soo myself. The event where my stuff will be on sale is on the list of events so check it out if you can 🙂 The list is going to be broken down by day, since these events are  starting Thursday and ending on Sunday.

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Stop Right There!

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STOP RIGHT THERE! FROM THIS DAY FORWARD I PROCLAIM THIS LAND “LA EASTSIDE” (The actual LA Eastside can figure out some other name for themselves, maybe “Tierra Incognito”.)

From the new LA section at Huffington Post, a renewed frontal attack on the real LA Eastside by the Bourgeoisie Forces of the “OTTES” (other than the Eastside).

$8.00 cup of coffee? Perfect setting for a Vanity Fair interview? Not anywhere on my LA Eastside.

Say whaaaaat? Ezell below on the gritty LA Eastside of her imagination.

*“Best Old School:* When it comes to coffee on the east side, *Café Tropical* is OG – original gangster – so old school it doesn’t sell any variation of its café con leche except decaf (and that will cost you extra). Their coffee is bold, strong, and hot. They sell Cuban sandwiches”

OG-original gangster? Café Tropical? Not on the LA Eastside I know.
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Keeping kids in check

The L.A. Times published a story today about how some teachers can’t control their classrooms and how it makes for a horrible learning environment. The story focuses on how teacher school doesn’t teach teachers how to  handle discipline problems because it’s all circumstantial and what may work for one class won’t work for another. The story didn’t shed any light on anything we already didn’t know really. So, since I am a product of the LAUSD system and have seen a lot of shit, even in my day, I’m going to chime in with my own two cents and offer my suggestions to would be LAUSD teachers on how to deal with the discipline issue of teens.  Also, if teachers, former and current, can chime in with their war stories and what worked for them, anonymously of course, it will be greatly appreciated.

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Snow in Lincoln Heights

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Sorry for the photo quality, taken with phone cam

Well technically it’s ice but you can still make some mean snowballs from it.  I was “accidentally” hit by one while taking a photo, the things we do do for this blog!

By the way,  I say we can get rid of the gang problem in one season, just give boys a bunch of snowballs and let them get out their aggressions that way. It’s fun too!

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The snow should last for a few more hours  so head on down to North Broadway and Ave 20 behind the Bank of America.

Oh, and they have FREE PIZZA!

I bet HLP parade had none of the above.

Snow sponsored by the Lincoln Heights Christmas Parade Committee.

The Other amongst the others.

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Something that I’ve always been intrigued and interested by is how people of color come to, in a way, escape their perceived cultural outposts. For non-POC folks being “strange & different” is seen as plain eccentricity while doing the same while being a POC is seen as pure deviance. We are maligned by both the “dominant” culture and our “traditional” culture. As  noted in such films such as AfroPunk, we exist somewhere neither here nor there (but maybe everywhere?)

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Eastside 101: Basic Restaurants

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Even though I’m going to review this restaurant you see above, this post is about all the little family owned restaurants, just like this one, that make up the bulk of eateries on the Eastside. They’re not necessarily spectacular. They might take a long time to get on yelp. The signage on the place is usually improvised, or if they’re lucky, ALZAized. Nobody visits for the decor nor for that bullshit “ambience” that makes foodies feel special. These simple restaurants are just places that provide food. Stuff to eat when yer hungry. They give us our nourishment and I think that qualifies as worthy of mention.

In my quest to map out the current state of Huevos Rancheros I end up eating at lots of these places. Very rarely do I hate the food. Usually, at the very least, I get a decent meal for around $5, give or take a few bucks. I might not review it, but still, I appreciate the fact that they cooked something for me to eat. When we focus only on the consumption aspect of food, we forget that cooking for others is serious work. It’s labor intensive and tiring. Yet the eater just wants to plop down some cash and expects a fabulous meal. I guess if you have cash to burn then that’s arguably a reasonable expectation. But for the working poor of the Eastside a plate of food is a plate of food, its just a bonus if its delicious! To some places I’ll not be rushing back, but if I’m no longer hungry and can continue with my daily pendejadas, then that’s good enough. And sometimes, these chance encounters with a new hot plate can be very pleasurable.

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Childhood games

canicas

Growing up as a kid, I loved playing games with all the other neighborhood kids and more often than not, cousins too. A lot of the games we played are your standard stuff like hide and seek, tag, freeze tag, trompos, canicas, soccer, going on long bike rides around the hood, hitting rocks with a stick, throwing stuff at RTD buses passing by, you know, those kind of games. The ones were all you needed was a bunch of friends and a sunny afternoon. Since we were all from low income families back in the day, course we didn’t know it at the time and speaking for myself, still am, we created our own fun and those were some of the best times I had in my childhood. I was even caught up in the whole pog craze. Then I got swept up in the yo-yo craze tambien. One of the best games I remember playing with my cousins was getting two sticks. A short, thick one and a long skinny one. We would dig a hole in the dirt and place the small stick over the hole. We would then used the longer stick to chuck the short stick as far as we could,  the way you hit a golf ball with a club. The winner was who ever threw it the fardest. We had some good times playing with two sticks and a hole in the dirt. So, I wanna know what games you guys/gals played when you were a kid. Was it made up ? Did someone get hurt from the game ? Were you emotionally scarred for life like I was when you were picked last at everything because everyone thought you’d suck, but then you’d be the one kicking ass ? Do you even remember how to play those games ? (cause god knows I can’t remember how to play canicas anymore) Have you taught your kids, nephews and god children to play those same games ? Dime… AND please keep any crazy stories about playing house and doctor to yourself, this is a family site. Unless they’re really good, then please share them by all means 🙂

LA Gang Tours

gangtagsPhoto via Flickr

I’ve been on many tours in the Los Angeles area most of them have been usually run by the Los Angeles Conservancy. I usually expect people my age to think it is lame or cheesy to go on a tour, but I figure I get to learn new facts and history regarding my own city. The majority of the things I’ve learned on these tours most people who grew up in Los Angeles don’t even know or bother to know. I take it as an educational experience in our own backyard.

More after the jump

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NELA Xmas Parades This Sunday (and Next)

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(From last year at LH, when a girl tried to do a citizen’s arrest on a promoter of unhealthy food.)

(Edit: Damn am I stupid. Thanks to Crisis for pointing out the obvious. LH parade is on the 13th. HLP is the 6th. Argh!)

What you doing tomorrow morning? Nothing? Well then, might I suggest you consider attending one of NELA’s Xmas parades. This year, you’ll have to make the grueling decision of which one to attend as both the Lincoln Heights and the Highland Park parades are happening this Sunday Dec 6, even though they are usually spaced a week apart. What happened? Is La Crisis so bad that local parades have to battle for attendees and their few crumpled dollars? Oh wait, they’re both free. Nevermind.

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LH starts at 11:00 am, at least on paper. 😉 Best spot is around N. Broadway and Griffin. Plus they are having a Tree Lighting event today Saturday at 5pm at Mirabal Mortuary.

To tell you the truth, I feel sorry for the HLP parade cuz everyone knows that the Lincoln Heights one is always better, so your decision should be easy. Ha ha, I said it! But here’s that info, just in case a few people want to go just so they don’t feel bad.

65th Annual
Northeast Los Angeles
HOLIDAY PARADE
” Unity in the Community ”

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2009 ~ 1 PM
Traveling down Figueroa from Ave. 60 to Sycamore Grove Park followed by
WINTERFEST CONCERT & ENTRY AWARDS CEREMONY 4 PM

http://northeastlaholidayparade.com/

I guess you can go to LH first and then hurry to HLP. Hmm, that’s not a bad idea.

Gentrifier Irony

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What annoys gentrifying hipsters the most? When other, slightly different gentrifiers show up and ruin their exclusive party.  Check out this post from that fairly new music store in Echo Park called Origami, they need your support to take back some bar:

OK, I have lived in Echo Park for about 9 years. I use to frequent the Shortstop about every other day back when they allowed dancing…The place was fucking amazing then. Lot’s of cool art kids, punks, and dub heads…Once the dancefloor got shut down, we started to frequent the bar less and less. We found ourselves hitting the Gold Room for free tacos and a shot with all the old Latinos, which was kinda sketchy at times- I’m pretty sure few white kids dared venture in back then…Once the Shorty got it’s dancefloor reopened we started to go back. But it just wasn’t the same. It had this bridge and tunnel feel to it… it just seemed to take on this USC college crowd thing.

Now how funny is that? And they even managed to throw in a “bridge and tunnel” reference, which I hear is a New York thing (nah, really?) but I wouldn’t doubt if they start using it with some more local connotations, what with all our bridges and new tunnel. I wonder if they’ll also get called out for bringing up race issues, just as Chimatli was for her story of how Echo Park had changed since before the gentrification started? Besides this brief mention, I suspect not. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly care about any of those bars and if they manage to Take it BACK, well good for them. Vanquish the B&Ts! But I think I’m just going to sit on the sidelines while they “make it cool” again, crack open a beer, and watch this comedic battle unfold. Ja. Ja.

If this wasn’t so hilarious, it’d be pretty fucking sad. Or is it the other way around?